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MedTrack.xls

A short and sweet weekly symptom and medication tracker for rheumatoid arthritis (my version, anyway).

Paper size:

Classic (5.5 x 8.5)

Thumbnail:

Usage advice:

I track symptoms twice a day, and rate them in severity from 0 (no problems at all) to 4 (OMG - where's my Vicodin?). Sleep quantity is recorded in hours - both day and night. I often take a nap during the day, so a typical entry might have "1" in the day slot and "6" in the night slot. I rank the non-pain symptoms a bit differently than the pain symptoms - I'm sure you can work out your own ranking system. Medications are simply checked off if they're taken. NSAID (ibuprofen, naproxen, etc), analgesic (tylenol, Vicodin), and sleep aid (Lunesta, diphenhydramine) are filled with the initial and dose of medication taken. For example, if I took 2 Vicodin, I put "V2" in the box; if I took 2 diphenydramine for sleep, I put "D2." There is space for notes at the bottom - anything that won't fit neatly into a checkbox.

The goal of my system is to be able to assess the day's issues in less than 5 minutes, at the end of the evening (sleep qual/quant is ranked for the night before). It is quite helpful to be able to go back and see trends in symptoms and NSAID, analgesic, and sleep aid usage. When I visit the rheumatologist every 3-6 months, I take my notebook. Instead of saying "Uh... OK I guess" when asked how I've been doing, I have actual data.

I am including the Excel spreadsheet as well as a PDF for 2-up double-sided printing on 8.5x11 paper (2 sheets per page). Obviously your symptoms and issues will probably not be the same as mine, so modify as needed. I suspect most guys won't need the line for "feminine" issues. ;)

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